The Great Avatar
by JasonBrody12
Summary: Alternate continuation to the Ember Island Players: The Avatar. He did everything for others and never asked for anything in return. He only wanted one thing. But he never got it. He saved everyone, but he couldn't save himself from the detrimental effects of a broken heart on the mind. Features a bit of Kataang later on.


**_DISCLAIMER: I DONT OWN ATLA. THE ONLY THING I OWN IN THIS STORY IS THE PLOT_**

**The Great Avatar**

**Zuko's POV**

I would never forget the days following the fall of the Firelord, my father.

They never supected the holocaust would not end with the extinguishing of the relentless fire. They never suspected there were two more sets of ashes to be added to the already monstrous pile that has accumulated one hundred years worth of it. One life extinguished resulting in the end of another...

But maybe I am confusing you? There's that word again. Aang's final words to me haunted me the first time he uttered them and will continue to haunt me for the rest of my life. "Confusion is but an illusion" he had said. And he might just be right...

Aang. Overall, he was a good kid. Happy-go-lucky demeanor stuck onto him until the end. He'd usually find something positive about a complication or anything like that, but after that sorry excuse of a portrayal of our adventures, he seemeed quite...reserved. He would rarely spend anymore time with the gaang(as they would call it) and would spend most of his time either training or at the beach staring out at the glowing yellow orb at the other end of the endless blue field, perhaps his blue field. he WAS the avatar after all.

Aang wasn't the only one acting strange. Katara too caught whatever infected Aang in the theatere. She too wouldn't talk much and she looked despaired, depressed, and even guilt-ridden to an extent. Her sea blue eyes ooked like they were about to burst with tears. Also, Aang seemed to be avoiding her. I never understood why he was avoiding her until later on though...

Back to the story. Even if life never gave him what he wanted, Aang turned out alright in the end. The avatar never forsake us, and only chose to indulge in want after the completion of his duties. Because of this, it makes him a better person than anyone I know.

Anyways, let me tell the tale from the beginning...

* * *

That was a horrible play

Even after two years, I never forgot about that fateful day. Nothing was ever the same after that horrid portrayal of me and my friends.

As we trotted to my family each house, the angry orange glow of the sky was just turning into the dark blue twinkling blanket man chose to sleep under. Aang, who hadn't said a word since the play, spoke up saying he needed to be somewhere. Looking back, I wonder why I never asked him about it. Curiosity was overpowered by my pensive mood about the end of the play. The part portraying Aang's fall to my father really forced me to consider permutations of the future, both the good and the bad.

Katara spoke up, albeit a bit unsure.

"Are you alright, Aang?" She spoke in avoice dripping in care, a voice that would make you want to confide in her. It was the kind of voice that understood you very well.

"I just want to be alone" the avatar whispered tiredly, his voice completely devoid of emotion. Even in my entranced state, this was one of the few significant things I noticed. At the time, I thought the kid grew up a bit knowing not everything was fun and games. I thought he was just exhausted after seeing that horrid play. I guess no one ever guessed his exhaustion to be deeper than simply being physical.

Everyone, maybe except Katara herself. She seemed to know the avatar much more personally than anyone else in our little group. Her blue eyes shone with worry for him as he walked away to the sandy field of Ember Island.

"What's up with him?" Sokka asks, unaware of the reality of the whole situation. Perhaps he wasn't the only one unaware. I'd say that we were all unaware of just how bad Aang's mental health was. We were unaware of the dark thoughts that circulated through the bald monk's fragile mind.

"Eh...Twinkletoes'll be alright" Toph remarked with a grin, her green dress swaying along with the breeze of the wind "He'll be alright. We don't need to worry". Her milky eyes were empty, but shone with a careless gleam that seemed to spread to her personality.

Me, I never really cared one way or the other. All I cared about was that that Aang dispells whatever bothered him and be ready for the duel whether the earth glows red or the usual blue and green.

Katara probably cared the most about the avatar. With the way they acted around each other, I always assumed they were a couple, if not walking the ine that separated 'being friends' from ' being something more'. It was logical for me to think she knew whatever virus Aang caught that's causing him to act this way.

But seeing the way Aang isolated himself from the group, even her, I scratched that assumption. After all, no one knows a person as well as the person himself/herself.

I turned to Katara, who remained silent since Aang left. She wore the same expression that was on her face when Aang decided he wanted total isolation. That guilt-ridden, agonized expression. She seemed to want to come out with whatever dark secret she haroured just to get that heavy feeling of her chest.

I knew that feeling very well. It was a bit after the catacombs of Ba Sing Se. But that is another story for another time.

All I knew was that she knew something. The blue orbs she possessed told everything.

* * *

"Aang hasn't come back yet"

That simple statement from Katara brought me back from my contemplation of the near future.

"Kid's probably out meditating again. You know him, sis" Sokka blindly stated as he indulged in his bowl of soup Katara cooked up. A human's attention can be averted quite easily if you give them earthly pleasures to indulge in.

And Katara knowing the avatar well? I seriously questioned that remark with Aang giving her the cold shoulder earlier today.

At that moment, the door flew open and the avatar walked in with a slight smile on his face. I should have seen his mask from the moment he started wearing it. I think Katara did realize he was wearing the mask, but Aang kept her out of arm's reach, far enough so to keep the twisted mask on his face.

"Where have you been? I've been worried sick you know." Katara said, her sea blue eyes dripping with the same concern as it was dripping with when Aang decided to isolate himself.

"I just needed to think for a bit. I'm fine" Aang stated. This was the biggest lie I have ever heard.

Katara's blue eyes looked unconvinced, but dropped the subject anyway.

"Zuko, can we have extra training time tomorrow?" the avatar asked me, bringing me out of my pensive state "With my fight only a month away I'm gonna need as much practice as possible".

At the time, I thought this was perfect. The thirteen year old avatar was more than willing to face his destiny and train even harder to make sure he wins. To make sure we win. That all our efforts didn't go to waste.

I nodded, agreeing with his request for longer and harder sessions.

"We've got a long day tomorrow. We should get some sleep" Aang told the rest of the group with a slight smile. I had my own suspicions that his smile was fake.

But despite my suspicions, I, along with the rest of the group, agreed with the avatar. We were all exhausted after today's events, but no one as exhausted as Aang himself.

* * *

I couldn't sleep that night.

I couldn't shake of the voice in my head telling me something bad was about to happen. I simply assumed it as paranoia and simply shrugged it off.

But seeing I wouldn't fall into the clutches of slumber anytime soon, I decided to go outside and have a short walk along the line that separated the brown, sandy field that very few inhabited from the sky blue fields that has managed to ensnare many with an entrancing yellow light, which many percieve to be gold, at the other end of the field.

As I exited the beach house, I noticed a shadow sitting atop the roof. Most of the entity's features were bathed in the sky's black light. All I could pick up were his robes. They were a rare golden colour along with a few traces of red.

The figure was facing the moon, and seemed to be staring intently at the horizon at the other end of the alluring blue field. But without the mask of the yellow glow worn by the horizon, there was an empty black space which crossing the blue fields promised.

I knew immediately it was Aang, the avatar, the one who was destined to defeat my father through any means possible. Who else would wear golden robes wtih a touch of red? Those robes were definitely Air Nomad. It was unmistakable.

I did not know what went through his mind as he never once tore away from the vast emptiness in the horizon. Perhaps he was thinking about the battle in the near future. Perhaps he is battling with inner turmoil. Or perhaps he is contemplating today's events. He had been acting rather strange after the play...

After a few minutes, I left Aang with his thoughts, left him watching over the nothingness in the horizon, the unmasked emptiness promised for traversing his vast, treacherous blue fields.

* * *

**A/N: If any of you are confused about the language used, or to be used in this story, just try to decipher the meaning of the text through my use of metaphors and colours. I can promise you there will be plenty of it in the story. Ask yourselves questions like "what could the blue fields reference to?"(CLUE: EMBER ISLAND IS AN ISLAND. IT IS SURROUNDED BY BLUE). **

**Also, I'm going to tell you guys now that this story was influenced by 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I'm studying it in my English class. Because of its influence, some of my symbolism may be similar so just think about that.**

**But for any of you who HAVE read the novel, just try not to be disappointed when you find out my story isn't half as good as the novel. The novel was pretty good, and this is coming from someone who generally hates readin**


End file.
